World

Large swaths of low-cost land: check. Lots of sun and wind: check. The ability to transport green hydrogen cost-effectively to energy importing economies: check. Then you’re in the race to become one of the “renewable energy superpowers” of the low-carbon economy. A growing number of countries are assessing their renewable resources and natural attributes and positioning themselves to become green hydrogen exporters. However, not all are created equal.

Macquarie owned Green Investment Group’s Renewable Energy Fund 2 has far exceeded its own expectations by raising over AUD$2.5 billion in investment commitments for large-scale solar and wind projects all over the world, including Australia.

Energy consultancy DNV GL has published new results comparing the performance of modules based on 166mm, 182mm and 210mm silicon cells. The assessment compares Trina Solar’s Vertex modules, which use the largest cell dimension, with unnamed competitors utilising the other two sizes. Results from system simulations show a clear advantage for the two larger sizes, with 210mm edging ahead in terms of levelised cost of electricity.

The incremental improvements achieved each year in solar are usually relatively small, and improvements to one component can easily be accommodated by the rest of the system. But every so often, a bigger change comes along, with implications that will ripple up and down the supply chain.

Sector coupling may be somewhat of a buzzword, but it also points to opportunities for PV beyond the power markets, which may quickly reach limitations during peak hours of irradiation. Combined energy, food and clean water production presents one such opportunity, with benefits for developers, utilities and communities.

There’s more to read in the solar world than pv magazine alone, as much as we may hate to admit it. Looking back across some of the industry’s seminal works, leading analyst Jenny Chase’s 2019 book is too valuable, and entertaining, to be ignored.

One environmental group said the new president’s actions make “the United States once more part of the global climate solution—not the problem.”

Throughout 2020, a fast-moving story played out in PV module technology, with the introduction of larger wafers and subsequently larger module formats seeing the industry break into two camps, backing either 182 mm or 210 mm wafers. It remains to be seen whether one or the other will become a new industry standard, and both sizes will likely be plentiful on the market for the next few years at least. pv magazine takes a look at how we got to this point.

Looking back over years of research into the topic of hybrid systems based on different combinations of solar, wind, hydro and other renewables, an international group of scientists found strong potential for strategies to exploit complementarity between the different sources integrate more intermittent renewables onto regional and national grids. The scientists present a series of conclusions and recommendations that aim to push research in hybrid renewables forward.

Fortescue Metals Group Chairman Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest returned to Western Australia last week after a 4-month worldwide search for green energy projects and resources. One of the deals secured on the trip was a circular partnership with South Korean steelmaker Posco. The deal sees Fortescue supply Posco with iron ore, Posco use said ore to make steel, and Fortescue use said steel for renewable energy projects to make green hydrogen.